Wigan v. Arsenal; Liveblogging some silly video stream

I found a stream if you want to join in. If not, then I recommend jumping out of the fire before you know the final score.

30′ — Fabianski claims an easy ball off a Wigan free kick.

32′ — Beautiful day at the JJB, I’ll give complete lineups at the half. Right now, both teams are poking the ball around with Wigan coming in on the counters and Arsenal sort of tentative going forward.

34′ — Djourou is being stretchered off the pitch, and Sylvestre comes on for him. FUCK. I think there was some tackle on Djourou but I missed it.

37′ — It’s no exaggeration to say that Wigan are in complete control of this game. Arsenal can barely get the ball out of their half, Wigan has had half a dozen free kicks in the Arsenal half and are completely dominating the game. A draw would be a good result. Especially down 1-0.

39′ — Stream has frozen. Likely someone’s mom told them to get off the computer.

Well, that was fun. I got to see part of the score and Djourou get stretchered off. I love steaming videos!

EPIC FAIL

It’s back up, just in time for the second half. Hmm… maybe I should just let it go and catch the second half tonight.

49′– Yes, we’re in the 49th minute of the first half. Kieran Gibbs has a moment of madness, tries to head the ball back to the keeper, doesn’t put enough pepper on the ball, and as he’s getting beaten by the striker, hauls him down from behind. Just to make this clear, Gibbs was the last man, hauled someone down on a very VERY clear foul and gets just a yellow card.

The ensuing free kick nearly results in a goal as Wigan hit the inside of the cross bar. Looks a lot like Arsenal decided not to show up today.

Lineup in a second…

Bendtner is leading the line, Cesc is on the shoulder, Arshavin out left, and Walcott out right. Song and Denilson are supposedly patrolling the midfield but they are getting overrun by Melchiot and Titus Bramble (who’s combined age is 107).

Second half

53′ — This is as poor as I’ve seen Arsenal play. Gibbs clears a ball off the line off a Mido header and Arsenal were really lucky not to concede there. Fabianski had come out and tried to beat Mido to a header outside the area. A clash of heads took place and Mido is a bit groggy.

Before that Denilson committed a stupid foul and then Cesc committed a stupid foul and Arsenal are reallyt lucky that Wigan hasn’t made this 2-0.

56′ — I thought I saw Adebayor warming up on the sidelines. Anything would be better than Bendtner leading the line. Meanwhile, Cesc is dropping back a bit and covering the two covering midfielders. So with Bendtner basically non-existant Arsenal are playing a 4-3-2

60′ — YES!!! Some interplay between the two strikers (Arshavin and Walcott, see’s Walcott score a goal after Arshavin is hauled down in the box. Way to stick with it, young fella!

van Persie is warming up and looks set to come on.

63′ — WHOA.. Denilson makes room for van Persie. Yep, it’s a 4-4-2 now. Arsene has abandoned the 4-2-3-1 that was an utter failure. Robin comes on brightly and gets stuck in right away. Come on Robin, stay healthy!

Some Wigan c*nt kicked Cesc in the knee, he looked to have gone down a bit easy there.

68′ — Some Wigan c*nt named “Scharner” is sporting the Freddie Ljungberg look. Arsene surprises by removing Theo and putting on Adebayor when everyone knows that he could just bring Ade on for the empty space occupied by Bendtner.

71′ — Ok, this team is full of surprises. After a yellow card foul by some Wigan player, Arsenal’s free kick winds it’s way to Sylvestre who scores a decent goal. 2-1 to the Arsenal and suddenly they are playing well. This team is so unpredictable it’s not funny.

But you know what they say? “Champions find a way to win.”

74′ — I take it back, “Scharner” has blue hair with a big red stipe. GHEY.

75′ — Ade plays a beautiful touch to Song who just doesn’t quite have the final touch to play Ade back in. That is quickly followed by a brilliant pass from Cesc to Gibbs to Arshavin who’s shot hits the post. Robin follows up but is judged to be offside. Arsenal are all over them now.

78′ — I agree Geraldinho, his defense is cringe worthy (he just played a header straight up in the air.) I bet that’s why Cesc was moved back.

80′ — SHAWN WRIGHT PHILLIPS IS WATCHING ARSENAL (why???)

83′ — Robin van Persie is judged to have fouled on the edge of the box and earns a yellow card. This was all set up by some poor clearances by the Arsenal defense who, between Sylvestre and Gibbs, can best be described as “desperate.”

85′ — At the risk of being too negative, Arsenal’s free kick goes into the empty space that Bendtner occupies and is tamely headed sort of in the direction of the goal. This happens again two minutes later.

89′ — Adebayor makes a great run in the counter but plays in a poor ball to Cesc that is easily cut out by Boyce who makes a school-boy error and lets Ade take the ball back off him. Arshavin is the lucky recipient of the poor defending. As I type that, SONG (of all players) makes a MAZY run and scores a great right-footer, low and in the side net. Undefendable, Arsenal 4, Wigan 1.

This Arsenal team is truly amazing. Play like utter shite for 50 minutes and then turn it on for half an hour and beat the shite out of opponents. I don’t understand it, I really don’t. Youth? Maybe.

Oh well, it’s a win, and a damn solid win at that. Next up Villareal in the Champions League and we’ll need Sylvestre and Gibbs to really be on their games in that one if this match was any indication.

ade has been quite a spark since coming back. even the haters have to admit that his work rate has been excellent (relatively speaking). he creates a lot of space for other players and his finishing is miles ahead of bendtner at this point. it was good that bend could play a full 90 to let some other guys rest and we still got a win. couple of concerns moving forward: can’t continue to play one good half in matches, against top sides we won’t get away with that and we do have some tough fixtures coming up. time to fix that is right now. secondly the back end is rather in a shambles right now, gibbs and silvestre probably won’t be good enough back there against the top sides. if djourou is out which it looks like he may be, i’m not sure what the answer is back there. what can eboue do for the back end? can he only play right back or can he be useful in a centre half role? any thoughts?